Essentially, Kiva U is a university or school based Kiva Account which main goal is to educate students and people about micro-finance. It is comprised of more than 71,000 students and teachers around the globe. We have undergrad lesson plans and materials that can be found here: kiva.org/kiva-u.
We have in the past had campus chapters even prospect entrepreneurs in the community that have gone on to receive loans through our domestic platform Kiva US. Loan for America is a similar program that also teams up with us for loans: http://www.lendforamerica.org.
The Cal Poly Social Science club does have a Kiva account but it has been inactive for some time- setting up a new one, possibly more rooted in the Appropriate Technology class, may find more productivity as it is a great hands on tool in learning more about micro-finance. You mentioned that a couple students are possibly interested in using this as a project; they can be creative with it by either spearheading a class initiative to fulfill a borrower's loan, do some local entrepreneurial prospecting if they wish or a more generalized Micro-Finance Institution project. I can talk to them more about their ideas and what support or materials I can provide them with.
We have in the past had campus chapters even prospect entrepreneurs in the community that have gone on to receive loans through our domestic platform Kiva US. Loan for America is a similar program that also teams up with us for loans: http://www.lendforamerica.org.
The Cal Poly Social Science club does have a Kiva account but it has been inactive for some time- setting up a new one, possibly more rooted in the Appropriate Technology class, may find more productivity as it is a great hands on tool in learning more about micro-finance. You mentioned that a couple students are possibly interested in using this as a project; they can be creative with it by either spearheading a class initiative to fulfill a borrower's loan, do some local entrepreneurial prospecting if they wish or a more generalized Micro-Finance Institution project. I can talk to them more about their ideas and what support or materials I can provide them with.